There are a variety of ways to gauge growth in a county, such as the U.S. Census or an increase in school enrollments. Add to that list Sanitation Act reviews.
Jefferson County was among the top 10 counties in Montana when it comes to the number of Sanitation Act reviews over the past 10 years.
Sanitation Act reviews are performed for subdivisions with one or more parcels of less than 20 acres, and are to make sure that adequate sanitation facilities will be constructed, operated and maintained to support each parcel. While the Montana Department of Environmental Quality performs a good percentage of these reviews, 20 counties in Montana have contracted with the agency to perform reviews, including Jefferson County.
Jefferson County had 243 files submitted for review from fiscal 2010 through Sept. 15, 2020 under the Sanitation Act, putting it ninth out of the 10 counties, according to DEQ.
Flathead had the most, with 1,511, followed by Gallatin (971), Yellowstone (518), Ravalli (487), Missoula (431), Lewis and Clark (400), Lincoln (338) and Lake (301).
Sanders trailed Jefferson County as tenth, with 200.
In all, there were 7,137 applications submitted state-wide. Of those, contracted counties reviewed 58% of those, while the Department of Environmental Quality reviewed 42%.
Of all the files reviewed by both the contracted counties and DEQ, 76% came from those 10 counties, according to the Environmental Quality Council.
Sanitarian Megan Bullock conducts the reviews in Jefferson County and reported this information at the December Health Board meeting.
Bullock figures the growth is due to Jefferson County being a “bedroom community,” particularly for those who work in Helena.
The busiest year over the past decade in Jefferson County was fiscal year 2014 with 36 files, and fiscal year 2016 with 33. The most recent fiscal year, 2020, wasn’t far behind, with 29.
Jefferson County Planner LaDana Hintz said that while there has been a good deal of activity in the past 10 years, there was a period of major growth that began in the mid-1990s through 2008, and that since then, it has slowly kept going.
Hintz said there have definitely been more new subdivisions in the northern end of Jefferson County than in other areas.
Hintz also suspects the Sanitation Review numbers also include family transfers, boundary line adjustments and lifting sanitary restrictions.
Bullock agrees, adding that all of those also allow for a parcel to be developed.
Of the three northern Jefferson County communities — Montana City, Clancy and Jefferson City — Clancy saw the biggest increase in population between 2010 and 2018, up by 19%, followed by Jefferson City by 10% and Montana City by 3%, according to the U.S. Census.
